This morning, I decided to sleep in since I haven’t had a chance to do so in the past few days. In Cambodia, I woke up at 4:30 am in order to meet my tuktuk driver at 5 in the morning to be taken to Angkor Wat ruins. Then the day after, I had to wake up at 6:30 am to pack everything up and get ready for my bus trip to the Thai-Laos border towns of Aranyaprathet/Poipet. Sleeping in felt good for a change after a couple of hectic days.

I spent the day in Nakhon Ratchasima wandering around the town, heading off to the train station first thing to get my train ticket (574 baht/$18.75 for a second class sleeper bed) for Nong Khai, the Thai town on the Thai-Laos border. When I was asking about ticket, I wrote on my pad and explained that I am deaf, and will be ordering my ticket by writing. The young ticket agent (he was kind of cute) understood and was more than accommodating with my train purchase.

After the train station, I headed off to the town centre to see the principal sight: Thao Suranaree Memorial. The monument has a statue of the woman on the top, and is dedicated to the wife of a former deputy governor in late 1800s, when Laotian troopers were sent by the Laotian king Anuvong to invade the city and send all inhabitants out. The wife would make excuses and did some deeds that eventually saved the city by making the Laotian forces retreat upon news of incoming Thai troops. Nowadays, people (Thais, I would think) go to her memorial and give offerings and pray.

It was a very humid day, but I didn’t see the rain coming until when I went into the Klang Plaza Mall, it started pouring hard. The heavy precipation made the power inside the mall go out. The escalators stopped and everyone were a little shocked, then moved on when emergency lights came on. It was a good day to just go shopping and look at stuff, sitting in a cafe and being lazybones instead of doing the usual sightseeing. There were not much to see in Nakhon Ratchasima and I couldnt remember where to take bus to Phimai. When I thought about it, after seeing the Cham ruins in My Son and Po Nagar (Vietnam) and Angkor Wat (Cambodia), maybe I already had my fill of Cham ruins.

Whilst shopping, I found a nice light fabric long shorts, grey with brown patterns on it. I tried it on and it fit me very well so I liked it and bought it. It only cost 299 baht, or $9.75. So, I have one more bottoms to wear… been wearing only four bottoms for the last four weeks. Now 5 bottoms. There were a lot of cool clothes in the night markets, but most of them were size small or xl. Thais are more like Americans, because surprisingly, there were quite a few big stocky Thai people in Nahkon Ratchasima.

Then I went to train station and read a book (The Confession, by John Grisham, obtained from a free book exchange at Siem Reap) whilst waiting for the train, 3 hours wait until 1:37 am. It was a bit confusing, when a train came at approximate time, the platform police came to me and explained that it was Bangkok-bound train, not Nong Khai train. Fortunately for me, I understood and learned that my train was delayed for about 30 minutes. At 2:10 am, the train came and I got on, making my way to bed #22 for a good night’s sleep. We finally departured few minutes later to make its way towards Nong Khai.

Today was overall a good day. I got up early and walked about 15 minutes to the Mai Linh counter at the Olympic stadium where I bought my bus ticket two days ago. Apparently, the bus doesnt stop here, but a motodop came to pick me up and took me to the bus company’s office about 4 blocks away. It was a very Cambodian bus company, no foreigners, all Cambodians. I was a little afraid I might get on wrong bus, because I was completely surrounded by Cambodians and no posted information to read. I noticed loud vibrations and realised that the extremely loud loudspeakers were transmitting messages from this one guy. Fortunately that guy saw me looking confused and checked my ticket, telling me that the current bus was not my bus, but the next one.

The bus was air conditioned and clean, no complaints, except it was old Korean bus, and the brakes screeched really bad every time the driver hit the brakes, and would vibrate badly front and back when speeding up. Ahh, fun Cambodian bus. There were two rest stops, but I slept most of the way. It was 8 am when I left and about 2 pm when I arrived so it was like 6 hours on the bus.

When the bus arrived at the station, I scanned around the faces of excited tuktuk drivers, trying to see if I could spot the tuktuk driver that is supposed to meet me at the station. Previously in Phnom Penh, the tuktuk driver, Luch, has a cousin in Siem Reap that drives tuktuk and offered to contact him to come pick me up and arrange for all day transport around Angkor Wat Archaelogical Park. When I got off the bus, I tried to run away from the tuktuk drivers, when one of the guys got my attention and showed me his cell phone with the messages from Bruce in Phnom Penh. That was when I knew it was the right driver.

Getting on the tuktuk, I asked the driver how much to the hotel and he said $2. I teased saying that the other tuktuk drivers were advertising $1 to town centre. The driver grinned then we went to my hotel, Home Sweet Home. At the hotel, the driver and I wrote a little discussion and looked on map, as to plan our next day. It was agreed that he would come at 5 in the morning to pick me up and we would go to Angkor Wat before sunrise.

My guesthouse, Home Sweet Home, is a really nice place. I like it even tho the room is a little worn, but it’s really large and has a good fan, TV, etc… The internet speed is however sluggish, but I was starting to think it was the standard for Cambodian internet infrastructure.  My guesthouse is not in the centre of the town, but on the other side of the river, about 10-15 min walk. There are many guesthouses here in the Wat Bo area.

After showering and so on, I walked to town, and went shopping in the Angkor Market which is like a supermarket. Everything were priced in dollars (ironically!) and I bought a lot of cheap things and only paid $3 for toothpaste, crackers, 2 litre water, shampo and Vietnamese purple dried fruit chips.

I walked more and saw the Old Market, which is a big market building. I explored around and looked through various cotton and silk scarves, clothes, jeweleries, souvenirs, etc… I got a yellow/green Cambodian cheap scarf for $1. I was not picky about it because I basically just wanted protection for the back of my neck from the sun, and to wipe my sweat off. Near the market, there was a cute little alley filled with many restaurants and cafes.  Realising that I was really hungry, it was a little difficult to decide what to eat. First, I went to a Mexican place, but decided that the price was too high. I walked across the street and looked at a few fancy restaurants, but somehow I wasn’t really in mood for Western food. Finally, I spotted a nice Khmer restaurant which had nice picture menus with clear descriptions of the food.  I ordered spicy banana flower salad, and spicy chicken fried with galangal, tumeric and peppers/pineapples. I think it was called as pineapple curry, but it wasn’t your typical yellow curry sauce. It was more like watery red sauce (spicy). With that came rice, and I had two mugs of draft beer (Anchor Draft). It was only 50 cents each. I only paid $6 for my whole dinner.

After dinner, I went walking around more and saw the Pub street, which is basically a “partying street” filled with pubs and restaurants, as well as feet-eating fishes stalls. Near the Pub Street, I missed the opportunity to eat at non-touristy Cambodian market restaurants, where dishes were only like 50 cents to a dollar each.  I spotted the illuminated sign pointing the way to the Night market, so I decided what else do I have to do, I might just as well go do some browsing. There were a lot of items on sale, but it was different from the Old Market. The Night Market sold more clothes such as printed t-shirts, pillow covers, table covers, pirated books, pirated DVDs, etc… I ended up getting a dark olive green shirt with a white gecko silhouttee on it for $2.50.

Having had my fill of shopping, I walked to the Old Market and showed a tuktuk driver the name of my hotel. He carefully studied the name, which did not instill a sense of confidence in the driver from me. Finally he nodded, then told me to get on. I said “No, never mind” and walked away. Not wanting to ask other tuktuk drivers, I decided to just walk back to the hotel. The only thing to fear were roaming dogs which might think that you are a threat and chase after you, potentially biting you. Fortunately, I passed only a few rather tame dogs lying in front of their houses. At the hotel, I couldn’t sleep so I struggled some on the laptop with the internet and read book, trying to make myself fall asleep. It felt like a chore, and as the time neared closer and closer, I became paranoid that I would miss my 5 am rendezvous with the tuktuk driver. After a while, I was able to fall asleep…

I had an awesome day today. Although I set alarm for 7 am, I felt I wanted to sleep more so I ended up leaving hotel at 9 am. I walked straight to the Royal Palace and visited around the complex, taking in the Throne Hall which was completely adorned with numerous story/scene paintings from history, as well as the Elephants Terrace (where they displayed howdahs carrying the Royal Family members on elephants), Silver Pagoda and numerous other items such as stupas and cloisters lined with long murals depicting the history of Cambodia. I was running late so I went to the corner where Bruce said to meet me, arriving there at 10:45 am instead of 10 am. Bruce and his tuktuk driver, Luch, were nowhere to be seen. I began walking a bit and found them turning in the corner. Whew!

I explained to Bruce that I had slept in, and reminded him that he told me the day before to take my time and if I am running late, not to worry! Heh. He said true… First on our list was the Killing Fields Memorial in Choeuk Em, basically a site of mass graves of victims of Khmer Rogue terror, located about 17 km from Phnom Penh. It was not a fun place but very educational place to learn about the terrible things Khmer Rogue have done to their own people.

The most appalling thing was reading a sign on a tree where they would throw children against the tree trunk. At first, it didn’t really hit me until I visited the museum onsite and noticed a narration on one of the walls, titled “Did Khmer Rogue kill babies?” It referred to that tree, where numerous babies met their death in front of their mothers’ eyes. Sometimes, babies were thrown high in the air and shot.

The Khmer Rogue believed that the whole roots of the family had to be destroyed, because if you leave children alive, they can seek revenge in the future. They destroyed all the roots, which also meant destroying all the religious artifaces and destroying Khmer culture and traditions. The government focused on developing an agricultural society without capitalism. They forced people to relocate from big cities to the countryside to work hard labour on farms, blew banks up and tried to transform dramatically the lives of the Khmer race. If people complained or for whatever reason or implications, they can be arrested and sent to the prison where they were tortured and sent to the killing fields to be bulgeoned and sliced on their throats before falling into their open graves. Very grisy… when it rains, sometimes bones and clothes will appear, even til this day. It’s like a silent reminder or victims still reminding people.

After that, we ate lunch at one of the stalls near the entrance to the Killing Fields, where Luch, Bruce and I ate for $11. We went to the Toul Sieng Prison, which was formerly a school in Phnom Penh, but the Khmer Rogue changed it into a prison and torturing centre. They divided classrooms into small cells and torture cells. It was not nice pictures shown. So many techniques they used to torture prisoners, i.e. electrocution, burning, pulling, hitting on fingers, dunking heads into water vessels, etc… The Khmer Rogue would say that they never arrest wrong people and if people professed that they were innocent, the KR will shout at them that KR never makes mistakes and that victim must confess. The innocents were ultimately forced to confess, then sent to the killing fields. When Vietnamese Liberation Army invaded Cambodia in 1979, they were surprised about these crimes against humanity.

After the prison, we took a little driving tour, and saw the Independence Monument (from France), Vietnam-Cambodia Friendship Monument, the National Assembly building, embassies (N. Korea, Australia, German, etc…), and back to the National Museum of Cambodia. It is a beautiful building, built almost to look like one of the numerous wats in the country, with tiered roofs and projections off the roof. The museum had numerous exhibitions revolving mostly around historical archaelogical pieces found throughout Cambodia, with plaques on walls describing the history of the Khmer Kingdom and Cambodia. It was an interesting precursor to the visit at Siem Reap (Angkor Wat, etc).

One of the interesting things I found out at the museum was that Cambodians were known for doing illegal diggings in suspected archaelogical sites. Unfortunately, they destroyed a lot of things and sold items to willing buyers. Somehow a group in Cambodia found out, and tried to educate these people not to do it anymore, and spent some of the resources and time trying to locate all the sold items and buy them back. They had to put together giant puzzles and try to make findings based on their limited findings. Despite all these, they have managed to make some discoveries about the Stone Age people in Cambodia. They just finished opening a new exhibition section based on that era, showcasing jars, urns, jeweleries, and so on.

After the museum, we went to see the big Central Market, which is a giant yellow building built in Art Deco style. It was fun to look at, and I think people were mystified with me looking up at the building details, rather than looking at their merchandises. Last on our list was the big Wat Phnom, located on top of a hill. The story goes that a lady found three relics of Buddha on the river and brought it up this hill. Phnom = hill, Penh = lady’s name. So, we have the etmology of the capital’s name. We didnt pay to go in, since it was being renoviated at the moment. Instead, we walked around the wat, and saw several monkeys hanging around.

Bruce got some phone calls and announced that Niall were interested in meeting up with us. We went to a gay bar which name I cannot recall, Blue…? Bruce introduced me to some nice people, and one of them was a Thai drag queen who knew few signs. He thought about contacting some deaf friends, to see if they could come tonight. Unfortunately, they were in another city called Sihoukville. So, no luck. He said that he was going to Thailand, so maybe in Thailand, he can show me around if our paths cross. He’s a big flirt, and he said I was a bad boy because I had a Thai ex. I showed Kim’s making face picture to everyone and they all thought he was cute.

We went to eat dinner at an inexpensive khmer/western restaurant. I had spicy mango salad (yum!) and Khmer beef lak lok. It was a good dinner, full of flavours. Bruce and Niall wanted ice cream, so we went to an ice cream place called Blue Pumpkin, which is apparently an ice cream chain covering in three or four tourist cities in Cambodia, including Siem Reap. The ambience was nice, very contemporary and modern. On two sides, there were rows of reclined futon where people could lie down and check laptops/internet whilst eating food or ice cream. I had the ice cream sundae which had some adult beverages in it, but it was good, not too sweet.

Bruce was so tired, and seemed to be ready to sleep after such a busy day with me. So, we said good bye and his partner, Dara, was kind again to take me back to my hotel, where I ended up watching Korean mini-series on the television before falling asleep.

In the morning, Kim took me to the touristy bus offices along the Pham Ngu Lao Street in downtown HCMC, around 630 in the morning. There are several bus offices along this street, and we found one. Unfortunately, the first bus of the day had departed at 0730 am, and the next one wasnt going to be until 10 am. We asked the agent if there were other bus companies, and he said no. Somehow I didn’t believe that! I started to walk up and down the street and spotted another office. It was a bit pricey, so I moved on and found Mai Linh office. They had a 0830 departure for 100,000 dong to Phnom Penh.

Having not eaten brekkie yet, I recalled that they had a fast food pho chain restaurant called Pho 24 on the same street, so I suggested Kim to eat there quickly. We found it remarkable because they offered more herbs and veggies than their Ha Noi counterparts. After finishing our soups quickly, we made our way back to the office and waited a bit before I boarded the bus. It was the last time I would see Kim until I return home on May 23rd. :sniffle:

The bus journey itself was rather ordinary, except for the confusing border procedures. I was accustomed to having my own passports and doing my own border stuff, but the bus conductor had my passport as well as the others’. I didn’t really know what was going on, so I recruited this French group for help. I pleaded that I was deaf and could not understand what was going on, and realised after a while that they were struggling with English, then I switched to French by asking them “Etes-vous francais?” I apologised saying that it can be confusing, and the French lady said it was no problem at all. We made our way through the Vietnamese and Cambodian border checkpoints.

The Cambodian border police was a little weird. I had already applied for an eVisa, which is basically an electronic visa that you print out and bring to the checkpoint. They made me wait a long time at this unmanned desk, and when the lady came, I explained that I was deaf. She seemed to make a big deal out of it and made absurd gestures. I was slowly losing my patience, but asked her to write down if she had any questions for me. Finally, she looked on the computer to check my visa information, then directed me to regular line. I thanked her and she made a “huh?!” expression. I shook my head as to say “never mind” and walked to the line.

Finally we got back on the bus, but it wasn’t long before we made a pitstop for lunch. Not having any low denomination dollars nor Cambodian riels on me, I decided not to eat lunch, but to eat later on. The French group came to me asking if I needed help, and I thanked her, saying that I had already eaten breakfast before leaving on the bus. Maybe I was a bad liar. I love trying different food, but didn’t want to impose upon others nor to try to explain that I only had $20 US notes.

The bus arrived on time in Phnom Penh ata street lined with bus offices near the Olympic Stadium. It was not where I thought it would stop at (at the Marketplace). I stopped at the Mai Linh office and purchased an onward journey ticket to Siem Reap for $7. I decided to walk and dodge all the tuktuk and motordop drivers. I couldn’t seem to find a Couchsurfer friend (Bruce) anywhere, but I decided that I would go and withdraw some Cambodian money. I spotted an ANZ Bank office, so I went to their machine, and withdrew about $100. I was dismayed when the machine gave me two $50 notes instead of Cambodian riels.

When I exited the bank, Bruce found me. We took a tuk tuk for $1 to my hotel, then Bruce waited in the lobby while I showered. It was very humid and hot here in PP. We went to Riverfront to eat lunch at the Foreigner Correspondant Club (FCC), where I ate some good curry dish with rice. Bruce suggested that we walk the riverfront to see the Royal Palace and the Museum. Then Bruce showed me his apartment and the restaurant he plans to open soon. Right now it is being renoviated, which started in January. It is  looking good so far. He has a Cambodian boyfriend named Dara, and he seems nice too. We went to a pub and chatted whilst we waited for more people to come. These people are: Dara, Niall (Bruce’s restaurant partner) and Visyana (not sure of spelling, Niall’s boyfriend). We went to a Cambodian BBQ restaurant and ate good Cambodian food. It cost $25 for 5 people. I am not sure if expensive or cheap but it was good food. I asked Dara to order typical Cambodian dishes, and he ordered grilled beef and pork, fried rice, green beans stiryfried with fiery red chilis, veggies and hot and sour soup (alm0st like Thai Tom Yum soup in metal container). Dara instructed that we put Cambodian pepper with salt and squeeze lime juice into it, then it would become dipping sauce for our barbecued meat. It was very tasty.

Afterwards, we went to a gay bar, and they sang some English and Khmer karaoke.  We sat in lounge room where Bruce and others would sing some karakoe songs and I would just smile, whilst drinking some cheap beer. It was a lot of fun. When we were ready to call it a night, we tried to negotiate with tuk tuk drivers about taking me back to hotel but they wanted $5 because it was nighttime. Crazy, so Dara offered to take me on his scooter to my hotel.

Earlier this morning, I was looking for agents to help me book tickets to Nha Trang tomorrow morning, and asked about today. Mr Hiep, the director of this travel agency, “Trung Tam Dich Vu Lu Hanh Da Lat” confirmed that there weren’t any tickets, as I asked at Peace Hotel.  I asked if there are any tomorrow morning, and he said he will call. He called and said bus tomorrow morning 7:30 am, $12. I asked what bus company it was, and he said Sinh Cafe bus. So I thought it was right price for Sinh Cafe. He gave me receipt for 240,000 dong, but said the time was changed to 7 am.

When I were leaving the hotel, the receptionist got my attention and told me that there was a change of ticket. I was puzzled and kept asking why the tickets had to be changed. Ticket was for the orange Phuong Trang bus and priced 120,000 dong. However, the ticket had three zero white-outed, as to try to make it look like $12. I asked the receptionist if it was actually 120,000 and she said yeah she thinks so. I demanded a refund and said I paid 240,000 dong. I took the other ticket receipt for Sinh Cafe Open Tour bus and it had a cellphone number on it. The receptionist called the guy (Mr. Hiep, cell phone 0918810901, as written on the old ticket) on my behavior and asked for refund. Mr Hiep said that because it is holidays, the price double. Receptionist seemed upset and spoke rapid VN then rolled her eyes in disbelief. I asked why the tickets were changed, and she said that the bus was no more (I think she meant full), so get this ticket for Phuong Trang. I asked why the director won’t give me the difference, and she said she doesnt know why. I answered that he probably thinks I am a dumb tourist and that he could pull it off. She smiled and said she is so sorry. I asked if there was a way I could complain about it. She wasn’t sure. I asked where the official tourist office was and she gave me address. So I will plan on seeing if I can make an official complaint about it. :rant time!: I plan on posting on all the travel forums for Dalat I can find and drive the business away from them. Karma revenge back time!

Moral of story: buy tickets directly from bus stations, not tourist offices.

It sure is cold here in Da Lat. Even though the internet says 61 for low, 66 for high temp., it feels much more freezing than that! Heh. I am wearing jeans, one long sleeved shirt and brown/orange pullover. brrr…

I am soon off for the day, and will be stopping at tour agents easyrider and pham adventures to see if they offer day tours. Then probably eat brekkie at Peace Cafe if I have time.

Last night, I was hungry so I went next door restaurant and they had menu with all dalat food… deer, porcupine, etc… But I chose the sweet and sour beef hot pot. You or mom usually cook it, but for some reason the hot pot last night was soooooo delicious! beef, loofah, tomato, pineapple, etc… It was extremely tasty!

The only next available bus was 7:30 tomorrow morning, and it is with Sinh Cafe Open Tour bus. So I hope it is a good bus this time. The cost was high though, $12 (240,000 d) to Nha Trang. I will ask them to see if they can drop me off at the train station, then I can look into booking that night train to Da Nang. As for the hotel in Nha Trang, of course, I wont be able to cancel it since it was less than 24 hours’ notice. Oh well. I’ll write it off as a loss for now. I am staying at the same hotel tonight as I did last night. I didn’t want to bother looking for a cheaper place, so I just wanted to focus on visiting Da Lat.

I did it all by walking. I decided not to do motorcycle tour since they wanted 30$ for one day. On internet it said should be $20, so I told him $20 and he said no. So I said no and walked away. Heh. It gave me a lot of exercise and movement that I needed so much, and I feel really good today, though my legs would tell you otherwise. “I’m tired!” heh.

I spent/wasted an hour looking for the first destination, the monastery of Da Lat. I thought and on the map, it looked like you had to enter it from the other side. But I was very lost. Out of frustrastion and desperation, having given up, I decided to just walk some street to see if I can get back to town center, and lo! There the monastery was! Duh. LOL. Then I walked to the house of Vietnam’s last emperor Dao. It’s a nice house, built in 1920s, so it was the style I liked. Roaring 20s! Heh. It was interesting to learn about Vietnam’s history through this house. They had a lot of artifaces and pictures. I didn’t know that the family exiled to France because of the onset of Communism. The empress died of cancer, and the emperor lived in Paris with a foreigner wife. Interesting… 2 boys and 3 girls, the crown prince died in Paris too, I think. The daughters all married foreigner men. It was definitely worth the walk from town center to this house on the hill.

On the way back, I spotted the Crazy House, so I went there. It was very interesting because it all looked more like tree stumps with crazy branches (stairways) going around the place. In some spots, it was a bit scary for me, but I still walked and pretended that I was a kid. LOL I even climbed a pole in order to get to the second floor. Apparently, the house was designed by the daughter (?) of a Communist leader. Now she is an old lady.

Next on the list was to take the aerial tramway to a temple. So I had to walk about 2 or 3 km in order to get to the tram. I was sweating a lot and my face got sunburnt, heh. The lotion doesn’t seem to help much, but I think maybe because I sweat so much I need a waterproof one instead of the one I have. I saw a store across the street, they had some lotions, cost 55,000 d. Maybe I will check to see if it is waterproof. I stupidly bought one way ticket to the temple, thinking it wasn’t so long to get back. It cost 50,000 d, and if you wanted roundtrip, 70,000 d. The temple was interesting and set next to a beautiful lake surrounded by mountains. I liked it there. When I got back to tram, I asked lady if I could buy 20,000 to complete my ticket for return. She said no! My gosh! I had to buy 50,000d so I said forget it. I looked at my iPhone map and decided to walk back to town center. It wasn’t too bad, about 5 kilometres, I think.

Next on my list was to go walk by the lake and go to see the flower gardens. Apparently, it was big because of the Tet (duh, I didn’t think of that). So it was not crowded but a lot of people were there. Now I just got back to hotel to shower up and put lotion on my face. Then I will go out again to see if I can find anything good to eat.

I still have not spent 1 million dong, still have over 200,000 d in my pocket. But I have to pay 800,000 d tomorrow morning when I check out, so I think I only spent 1.6 million dong so far. $80 for Mui Ne and Da Lat altogether. I think once I am with you again, it will be easier to not spend so much because you are Vietnamese native. Heh. I dont think it’s possible to be on budget during Tet. Everything is up.

What a chaotic day it has been! At 5 am, I went on the tour, and the jeep broke down. The driver flagged another jeep and they took me with them. Whew. White Lake Dunes (Bao Trang) was really interesting to see, but it was very far, and I now know why a jeep is needed. It’s too far by foot or by bike. Scooter, it could be possible, but it would take time.

Red Sand Dunes was nice too. It’s close to the village of Mui Ne. The fishing village at Mui Ne was picturesque, and then I hiked the Fairy Stream. It was a lot of fun, but I was done by 9 am, and went to hotel to eat breakfast. I ate mi noodle soup, and weak caphe sua da. I was disappointed with the coffee. LOL.

I went to room and relaxed, sleeping, then I showered and got ready. I went to reception to check out and waited for my bus. It was after 12:30 so I complained to hotel. The receptionist said that they are on way and to wait 30 more minutes. So I ended up eating lunch which was mango/milk drink and chicken with lemongrass and chili.

Bus came around 1 pm, and it was an old bus with no air conditioning. Half of the bus was tourists and half Vietnamese. It was definitely a rip-off for 160,000 dong, I think. The bus died down after Mui Ne, and then they pushed the bus to restart. When we were approaching the mountains, the bus had a big flat tire, so we were stranded for an hour whilst they were fixing the tire. They had to push to start it again. Then the driver stopped at a gas station to buy cigarettes and drink, and the keys somehow fell out, making the bus die down again. The tourists had to get out and push bus again. We didn’t get to Da Lat until about 6:45 pm, and they dropped us at a guesthouse, but I had no idea where I was. I was so lost, so I tried walking and walking. Finally I started to get my bearing and walked to Peace Hotel.

Unfortunately, the hotel was full. I threw a little tantrum, saying that I am deaf and I was trying to make reservations but Peace Hotel kept giving me hard time, saying 500,000 dong and “maybe.” The waitress felt bad so she offered to help me and I ended up in another hotel called Khach San Ai Nhgia. It’s very Vietnamese, but very passable. I pay VND400,000, so its 100,000 less.

Today we began to celebrate Tet. We started the day off by going to the supermarket (a new concept in Vietnam, but there are few big stores such as METRO where you can buy anything.) We shopped for food to get things ready for the Tet celebration. On the list of things we bought were: boxes of ice cream (even durian flavoured one!), gio lua (different types), vegetables, frozen cha gio re, roasted suckling pig, various junk food such as cookies, chips, etc… Apparently, a lot of Vietnamese people like luxurious “American-style” snacks. We had to buy a big bag to put all the food inside, then carry it on our mopeds back to Uncle’s house. The streets (and the store) were buzzing with last-minute Tet shopping.

When we got back, we went to the flower markets to look for flowers to use for Tet celebration. Flowers play a big role in Tet celebrations, and you can buy bright yellow chrysthemums and red flowers. The red represents good luck. Uncle already had a tet tree, so we didn’t need to buy one. They averaged about 30,000 dong ($1.50) for a potted plant.

Next on the list was preparing the altar for ancestors, which are usually kept on the top room. Elaboration preparations are made in order to dress up the altar with different items such as flowers, incenses, fruits, etc… Before lunch, the aunt cooked different food and the family brought the food up to the altar to offer to the ancestors. After a while, the food are brought back down and we sit down together to have big lunch feast.

Kim’s two aunts, Oanh and Qui, came over to eat with us. On the table were: suckling pig with crispy skin, poached chicken, cooked vegetable mixture (cauliflower, carrot, etc..), noodle soup, soup with root vegetables and chicken,  gio lua, etc… We ate a lot, and finished the feast with ice cream. I was never more than happy to eat durian ice cream after so long time!

After lunch, the house is cleaned, especially the living room, for the Tet celebrations. The floors are washed well, and the furniture cleaned well. You are not supposed to be cleaning during Tet, as they believe that it might wash good luck out of the house. So, better do it before the celebration.

Later on, everyone were napping until around 11:30 pm, when people started to dress up in nice clothes and look their best. Kim’s grandmother made an altar table on the roof patio to make offerings to the spirits. We watched the fireworks go off in three places, though the most dominant one was at the horizon at HCMC city center. The fireworks lasted for about 20 minutes.

After the fireworks, I accompanied Kim, Dinhkim, Uncle Dung and his son to  go over Aunt Oanh’s house. In Vietnam, they believe that the first person who steps into the house has significance, so they wanted a successful man like Dinhkim to step in each house to bring success to the house. We sat down and chatted over Dalat (Vietnamese) wine and Danish cookies.

After Oanh’s house, we rode over to Aunt Qui’s house where we stayed much longer, talking about different subjects. We ate dried snacks from Hanoi, and drank soda or tea. Finally at 3:00 am, we returned to the house to sleep. I was so tired.

This vendor was trying to sell coffee and small snacks on the bus before the bus was leaving, and she shouted to this old lady:

“Drink some coffee, it will make you fat!”

This would definetly not work in America.

It has been almost a week since we landed in Vietnam. The weather has been really warm, about upper 80s, sunny and some humidity. But at nighttime, it is cooler. I have been sunburnt several times already. Kim is turning tan, and his family is teasing him about it, because many Vietnamese people prefer to stay pale white. A lot of people wear long pants, long shirts, long jackets, helmet, face masks, sunglasses and gloves when riding scooters. In Vietnam, not many people have cars, but everyone rides scooters. So, the roads are mobbed with thousands and thousands of scooters. It can get crazy driving scooters. Kim has been doing a good job driving a scooter for me and him.

Today is the eve of the New Year, or the Tet. It is leading up to the climax at midnight tonight, and people will celebrate the new year for three days. Actually, some people are off for a week. We have been doing Tet-related stuff like one day we went to aunt’s house to make some banh chung. It is gelatinous rice with pork and mung bean wrapped in leaves and boiled for 12 hours. It’s really delicious. We made over 50 of them.

Kim and I took a bus ride to Mekong Delta, but it was really crazy!!! The bus statiion Mien Tay was so crowded with people trying to get home for the Tet. We lucked out and could not get a ticket for express bus to Long Xuyen, so we took a minibus instead. It took us 7 hours to get there because the roads were so crowded with scooters trying to get home. Long Xuyen is where Kim’s uncle lives, and we stayed there two nights. One day, we hired xe om (scooter) drivers and went over the An Giang region seeing different things like temples,riding the boat on Mekong River, going up Cam Mountain and seeing the Buddha on the top, Khmer temples here and there, etc… An Giang province actually borders Cambodia.

Then next day we took bus to Can Tho, but it was a bit disappointing because there were no way to take transportation to Can Tho early enough in the morning to be able to see the floating markets. We woke up at 5 am, and went to the bus station, But the bus would not leave until when it was full, so we had to wait for a long time. The bus would not start, so they had to push it in order to get it started. Funny.

After Can Tho, we got an express bus from CT to HCMC and it only lasted 3.5 hours. Nice. We have been in HCMC ever since last night and spent the evening at Kim’s aunt Quy’s house eating and talking. Today we will be staying home since it is the eve of Tet.